My favorite thing

The best part of living in Japan?
Having a heated toilet seat. Especially in Hokkaido, where I only heat my living room. I love my heated toilet seat, even if it isn't the kind that sings to me. I wrote a haiku about it:

heater off all night
peeing in heated comfort
staves off winter chill

Lost in Hobetsu

Another weekend, another musical rehearsal.

This time in Hobetsu, another small (under 5000 people) town. I drove, but I still don't really know where it is. This may have explained the two hour detour we took by accident on the way home...

It was a common theme to the weekend. We got horribly lost when we arrived in town and drove around a town with one main road for a half-hour, looking for our accommodation. Even the resident ALT giving us directions over the phone couldn't help us! We almost got lost on the way to the onsen. We called to get directions again and all we had to say was "I'm in a car with anyram...", and the laughter began. It turned out we were just being over-cautious. Sadly, the loss theme continued to personal items. I left my toothbrush and beloved minty fresh Crest (with fluoride!) at the onsen. And I think I forgot a brand-new bottle of lens solution somewhere too, but I haven't unpacked yet. Normally, these would not be terrible losses, but Japanese toothpaste is awful, and I just had that lens stuff sent to me!

And yes, somehow we managed to take a wrong turn on the way home and not notice for an hour. We did stop at a really good drive-in restaurant (hand-made soba noodles! yum!), which made us feel better about the excessive and unnecessary detour. But it did mean we had to drive an hour back the way we came to take the right turn. So it ended up being eight hours in the car. Not so much fun.

The rest of the weekend was great: plenty of singing and dancing and eating at the konbini (convenience store). Apparently, the staff there felt like they were in a foreign country all weekend. I guess that's what happens when 30 foreigners descend on small-town Hokkaido and stop at the only convenience store in town twice a day.

We also got our very cool "Hokkaido Players: Guys and Dolls" official T-shirts and fedoras. And I borrowed a copy of the Marlon Brando version of "Guys and Dolls". My plan for this evening: go shovel the last four days of snow accumulation {shudder} and curl up with Brando and Sinatra.

janken ga heta desu

It's true. I am bad at janken. More commonly know to those in non-Japanese speaking countries as "Rock, Paper, Scissors" (I like the "Kitten, Tin Foil, Microwave" variation myself). Today I played the gokiburi (cockroach) game with the first years. It's basically an evolution game, where the students have short conversations and play janken to decide who advances. After evolving to the stage of human, they come and play me. If they win, they become gods and write their names on the board. If I win, they have to start over as cockroaches.

In a class of 22 students, 16 were able to beat me and become gods. There were kids waiting for other people to become cockroaches, but I kept losing. The whole idea is that I win and the students have to keep practicing the English grammar point du jour. My JTE was a little disappointed. After class she was teasing me about my janken inabilities. She says I need to practice. Unfortunately, these students have about 13 years of practice on me.





In other news, I'm off to musical rehearsal in Hobestu this weekend. No, I have no idea where that is either. I'm sure it will be a fun weekend anyways.

For potential winter visitors to Hokkaido...

"We Are on Alert Against a Fall at Slippery Locations. "

A friend of mine brought me the best brochure from Sapporo. It's geared towards foreign tourists in Sapporo for the Sapporo Snow Festival. I'm guessing that they are primarily from Australia, because it includes such helpful tips as:
* Residents of snowy regions own winter shoes. Unlike summer shoes, these are insulated and waterproof.
* You are more likely to fall when in a hurry, or drunk.
* Fall-prone areas are Odori and Susukino (the entertainment district, see above).
* How to Walk Safely in Winter!

In other Hokkaido tourism news, the dulcet tones of yours truly have been recruited for the Sounkyo Ice Festival (層雲峡氷瀑まつり). I'm sorry to say that it isn't as my JTE suspected, and I will not be making announcements live every night. This afternoon I recorded a message to be played nightly at the Ice festival; welcoming visitors and making a plea for a small donation to support the festival -- you get a free postcard and a discount on a traditional Japanese hot drink in return! After many years of English study, I'm happy to report my pronounciation was excellent. My supervisor and "recording engineer" (the guy with the MD recorder) were impressed. I used my best announcer voice and I didn't even start giggling -- I should really work for CBC radio when I go home.

What were you thinking??!

Oh, Canada...

You just gave me another reason to stay in Japan! I just hope that as prime minister, Stephen Harper can avoid such fashion tragedies as this one. Not to mention: avoid dropping out of the Kyoto accord, avoid cutting social programs, avoid turning the clock back on equality rights, avoid a budget deficit...

And that "giving child care money directly to families" business? Yeah, I'm sure $100 a month will cover child care services. No problem.

I'd dig up some cites for all of these things, but I'm lazy and I have class soon. Maybe later.